Alexei Popyrin Stuns Olympic Champion Novak Djokovic At US Open 2024 to Enter Round Of 16
With Novak Djokovic losing to Alexei Popyrin, it means this is the first time since 2004 that none of the Big Three – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – are in Round of 16 of a Grand Slam.
New Delhi: Novak Djokovic change into surpassed a shock exit by skill of Alexei Popyrin just because the Serbian lost 6-four, 6-four, 2-6, 6-four in his Spherical of 32 conflict within the US Open on Saturday. Coming from triumphing Olympic gold in Paris, defending champion Djokovic struggled with fatigue in opposition t the Australian twenty eighth seed. It in reality is likewise the principal time Popyrin reached the Spherical of Sixteen of any Grand Slam.
The No. 2-seeded Djokovic change into watching to reveal out to be the principal participant in tennis documents with 25 Grand Slam singles titles. Good, he finishes a 12 months devoid of claiming no not as much as 1 main championship for the principal time since 2017. Prior than that, it hadn’t occurred since 2010.
Also of notice: 2024 now turns into the principal season since 2002 where none of the Big Three of guys’s tennis — Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — earned a Slam trophy. The 1/3-round exit equals Djokovic’s worst showing at Flushing Meadows; essentially the most basic diverse activities he change into beaten that early at the U.S. Open came in 2005 and 2006.
The man who defeated Djokovic 18 years ago, World Tennis Hall of Attractiveness member Lleyton Hewitt, is now Australia’s Davis Cup captain and change into sitting in Popyrin’s guest box in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Djokovic, who's 37, has reached the final in Ashe 10 cases, leaving with the title in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2023.
On Friday, although, he double-faulted 14 cases and seemed physically sluggish and emotionally flat, nearly always residual fatigue after collecting his first Olympic gold medal for Serbia by skill of beating Alcaraz within the final at the Paris Video games beforehand in August.
The No. 3-seeded Alcaraz entered the U.S. Open just because the tournament favored having won the French Open and Wimbledon, and acknowledged his electrical energy change into cut than he realized after getting eliminated in New York by skill of 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1, 7-5, 6-four on Thursday nighttime time.
With AP Inputs
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